Temperature-adaptive hydrogel optical waveguide with soft tissue-affinity for thermal regulated interventional photomedicine

Photomedicine has gained great attention due to its nontoxicity, good selectivity and small trauma. However, owing to the limited penetration of light and difficult monitoring of the photo-media therapies, it is challenging to apply photomedical treatment in deep tissue as they may damage normal tissues. Herein, a thermal regulated interventional photomedicine based on a temperature-adaptive hydrogel fiber-based optical waveguide (THFOW) is proposed, capable of eliminating deeply seated tumor cells while lowering risks of overtemperature (causes the death of healthy cells around the tumor). The THFOW is fabricated by an integrated homogeneous-dynamic-crosslinking-spinning method, and shows a remarkable soft tissue-affinity (low cytotoxicity, swelling stability, and soft tissue-like Young’s modulus). Moreover, the THFOW shows an excellent light propagation property with different wavenumbers (especially −0.32 dB cm−1 with 915 nm laser light), and temperature-gated light propagation effect. The THFOW and relevant therapeutic strategy offer a promising application for intelligent photomedicine in deep issue.


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March 2021
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All studies must disclose on these points even when the disclosure is negative.  Adv. Mater. 2016, 28, 245-253;Natl. Sci. Rev., 2021, 8(6), nwaa156;Nano Lett., 2018, 18(9): 6037-6044.). No statistical method was used to predetermine sample size. The in vivo sample size was five animals per treatment group. And at least three biological replicates were considered for most the in vitro studies.
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